ROCKLAND – In coach Brian Kelliher’s first year as the head coach of the Rockland High football team in 2012, the Bulldogs were a young team laden with sophomores.

That team fought to a 3-8 record after being held to 16 points in its first five games.

Last year, those sophomores became juniors and surprised some by going 6-5 and making it to the playoffs.

This year, those players have become seniors and are expected to lead the Bulldogs even further than they went last season.

“We’re hoping that the experience they’ve gained over the last couple of years has just put them in a position to achieve some success,” said Kelliher on Monday during the first day of practice. “We bit the bullet and they fought through, under-sized and under-strength, and they’ve gotten there.”

Rockland is hoping that last year’s trip to the playoffs is a launching pad for this season.

“It was a great opportunity for our kids,” said Kelliher, “especially for the seniors now because they took their lumps as sophomores and just to see how their hard work in the offseason had put them in a position to play Abington for the (South Shore League) championship. We’re going to try and build off of that.”

The turning point for the Bulldogs came after they fell to 1-1, dropping a 34-13 decision to Cohasset after opening the season in impressive fashion with a 34-12 win over Hanover.

“I was really afraid that that was going to be the snowball that took us the wrong way or were you going to be able to bounce back?” said Kelliher. “And then we bounced back with beating (East Bridgewater 35-34) the week after and that kind of propelled us for the next few weeks.’’

The Bulldogs graduated just over a handful of key players from last year’s squad and return talent all over the field. Most of that talent is in the backfield.

Enterprise All-Scholastics Joe Reardon, a quarterback, and Justin Nguyen, a running back, return along with the explosive Leshon Crawford. Matt Bille also returns after missing all of last season with an injury.

Reardon missed the end of last season with a torn labrum and a broken bone in his throwing shoulder, but he is now fully recovered.

“It was awful just sitting around all day, nothing to do,” said Reardon. “We’re looking to follow in our seniors’ footsteps with the leadership they gave us and make it to the playoffs. We’re looking to compete this year.”

Said Kelliher: “Joey’s been great. He got hurt at the end of last year, but he had a great year up until that point. We’re really expecting him to take control of our offense at the line of scrimmage and put us in positive situations with whatever the defense presents to us.”

Page 2 of 2 - The offensive line will be led by Dennis McPeck, Fabiano Rosa, John Kamande, Jason Cameron, Jean DaSilva and tight end Liam Ball.

Rockland returns much of its defense, but its one hole is at defensive line. Ball is the only returning starter at defensive end.

“We’ve got to fill a few defensive line positions,” said Kelliher, “but all three linebackers (Kamande, McPeck, Kevin Levesque) are back and three of the four d-backs (Reardon, Nguyen, Crawford) are back.”

“With Justin (Nguyen) and Leshon (Crawford) and Joey (Reardon), their experience in our offense and our defensive backfield that they’re able to kind of set the tempo for us.”

Despite returning loads of talent, there are some concerns for the Bulldogs entering this season – the biggest of which is their schedule.

Rockland already comes from one of the toughest circuits in the South Shore League Large, which houses consistent contenders East Bridgewater and Abington. Norwell (6-5 last season) and Randolph aren’t cupcakes, either.

To top that off, the Bulldogs open with back-to-back games against teams that played in Super Bowls last season in Plymouth South (Division 3) and Cohasset (Division 6).

“It’s not like we have an easy road,” said Kelliher.

Staying healthy up front will be key.

“We have those five or six guys, but really depth is our biggest issue and we can’t really afford to lose too many people for significant portions of time,” said Kelliher.